Technical Expert, Accelerated Restoration Grand Challenge

Skoll Foundation; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Conservation X Labs is seeking a Technical Expert to anchor the restoration science behind the Accelerated Restoration Grand Challenge, an open-innovation program focused on post-fire forest restoration across the Amazon, Pantanal, and Chiquitano regions. You will help refine restoration bottlenecks and shape the program's scientific direction, reporting to the Open Innovation Director.

The role requires deep restoration ecology expertise, experience setting technical criteria, and the ability

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in ecological restoration or fire-affected landscapes.
• Experience setting technical criteria and judging projects on merits.
• Ability to convene senior experts and chair an advisory group.
• Working English; willingness to travel to field sites in South America.
• Spanish and/or Portuguese a plus; field experience in Amazon, Pantanal, or Chiquitano forests preferred.

Responsibilities

• Anchor the restoration science and refine bottlenecks into challenge topics.
• Stand up and chair the Technical Advisory Committee.
• Develop evaluation criteria and rubrics for projects.
• Recruit and brief outside judges for assessments.
• Provide technical oversight of field-testing alongside the Accelerator Program Manager.

Job description

Conservation X Labs is hiring a Technical Expert to anchor the restoration science behind the Accelerated Restoration Grand Challenge, an open innovation program inside the South America Fire Fund focused on post-fire forest restoration across the Amazon, Chiquitania, and Pantanal.

This challenge is focused on the advances that make restoration faster, cheaper, and more durable at scale — getting enough viable seed of enough species to germinate, improving soil with amendments and microbial inoculants, smarter planting using drones, AI-assisted decisions, and patterned revegetation.

You’ll help refine the restoration bottlenecks and turn them into a clear set of challenge topics, stand up and chair the Technical Advisory Committee, develop the evaluation criteria and rubrics, recruit and brief the outside judges, and keep technical oversight of the field-testing phase alongside the Accelerator Program Manager.

Required: deep expertise in ecological restoration or fire-affected landscapes — restoration ecology, seed or soil science, reforestation — with a current view of where the science is advancing. Experience setting technical criteria and judging projects on their merits. The standing to convene senior experts and chair an advisory group people take seriously. Working English, and willingness to travel to field sites in South America.

Desired: Spanish and/or Portuguese, field experience in the Amazon, Pantanal, or Chiquitano dry forests, and knowledge of restoration technology such as drone seeding, AI decision tools, or microbial inoculants.

Three years, reporting to the Open Innovation Director. Full-time, part-time, or fractional arrangements all work. Location flexible, Latin America preferred.